The trouble for any band that has built their reputation on fiery live performances is how best to capture that energy and intensity in the studio. Most end up opting for post-production atmospherics (see: The Arcade Fire). Others simply set up microphones and let ‘er rip.
In the case of Salvation is a Deep Dark Well, the second album by Portland’s The Builders And The Butchers, the solution was to find some sort of middle ground between the two approaches. Their road-tested hybrid of punk-infused bluegrass/folk/gospel/blues has been fleshed out throughout by adding varied strings, horns and other accouterments. But the core of the album can be found in songs like the album’s closer, “The World Is A Top,” which features the band recorded live – nothing but vocals and a acoustic guitar – in an abandoned Masonic Temple.
Under the surface of these songs, though, you can hear the band straining to maintain a level of decorum, bursting at the seams to let completely loose, dropped notes and broken sticks and strings be damned. It’s a tension that works well within front man Ryan Sollee’s bloody, brutal tales of redemption, haunted towns and eerie places with names like “Vampire Lake”.
See The Builders and The Butchers live at Sasquatch here.
